No Business Like Showbusiness

Leslie

Opening Scene:
Don and I are strolling around Puerto Vallarta after having caught the last bit of a Son Jarocho music and dance session at our new friend Wen's cafe and roastery, Cafe Oro Verde. As we pass a "casting" sign, I glance into a spare, tiny office and immediately am met with calls inviting us in. We keep walking, but are stopped by a woman who has run out of the office. "Do you want to be in a commercial for the British Lottery?" she asks, and tells us they are filming Saturday, Sunday and Monday. As it's Tuesday and we are hoping to have our refrigeration done by Friday, we hesitate and decide to come back another day after we discuss matters with the rest of the crew. Walking away laughing at this weird occurrence, we are later hollered at on the boardwalk by some random restauranteur: "Hey, it's Barbie and Ken after a few drinks!" This almost seems like a complement, and thus confirms our bizarre Aryan star quality, planting the seeds that will lead us to delusions of grandeur.

Scene 2, Act One:
Don and I return to PV on Tuesday, and, after a fantastic smoked marlin burrito, cervesas, and "rehearsing" mute reactions of surprise and delight at having won the British lottery, we go to the office and find out we don't get to act at all! We just have get our pictures taken and fill out some info forms, including, "sports proficient at." I write volleyball, sailing and biking. Don writes skateboarding and hockey. British people love winning a million Euros and going for a skate and a volley, no? We are told to come back the next day to see if we're in.

Scene 2, Act Two:
We return on Friday with the entire crew, including Raleigh, having wooed them with tales of the $170 a day we could each potentially make. Pics are snapped, infos are filled--oh and we are asked if we can all scuba dive (Carl and I lie in take three, after convincing ourselves it won't be "real" scuba-ing), and then the casting director asks us to come back at 4pm to meet some kind of scuba casting agent.

Scene 2, Act Three:
Scuba guy is a no show. We are asked to come back tomorrow to where they will be filming downtown.

Scene 3: Downtown Puerto Vallarta:
After wandering around, following signs for "extras", we are told that they will be using some kind of scuba divers' union and they don't need us. "Ma-a-a-a-aybe" he will call--or rather email us since none of us have a local phone number to give--for us to be in a party scene, but at this point we have been given the run-around so much that we don't believe the guy. He gives us bottles of water to appease us.

Scene 4: El Arrayan Restaurant:
I skipped the scene where we were sulking in Cafe Oro Verde, to the scene where Lisa, Carl and I are at El Arrayan, a slow foods restaurant owned by a woman who we'd met at the a fore mentioned music session. Carmen had invited us to come by and enjoy some music by Wen (the coffee guy), his daughter and her boyfriend. So, while Andy and Don are at some mythical jungle skatepark they'd heard about, Carl, Lisa and I are sharing plantain empanadas, jamaica (hibiscus) flower quesadillas and some kind of amazing chipotle garlic sauce with fresh corn chips, along with crisp, cold Modelos on draft, listening to live Son Jarocho music and chatting with Carmen, who has given Lisa three recipe books featuring some of her specialties! All in all, we aren't too fussed with having lost our chance at stardom.

Scene 4, act 2:
Don shows up at the restaurant (Andy, being Andy, went back to the boat to sleep and be frugal), and after hanging out with Wen, his daughter Camilia and her man Daniel for awhile, decide to move along to some party being thrown by one, "Lorena." "Do you know Lorena?" asks Wen of Camilia and Danny; "No, but so-and-so is playing there..." So, we get into their cars and go.

Scene 5: The Party
I'm probably summing this up too quickly, so Don, Lee, Carl, feel free to write a post devoted to the party. Almost everyone here is Israeli, Croatian, or Ukrainian, which none of us realize for about an hour, speaking broken Spanish at them. Oh yeah, and Raleigh has also been dragged to this party. He glumly lays on the floor and sniffs around for food scraps. Wen, Camilia, and Daniel begin playing music, and gradually nearly everyone, including Don and I, grab an instrument (I suddenly think I can play this box thing called the cajon), then this mime shows up to play drums, blowing our minds (the mime talks, while also acting in weird mime-like fashion), and everyone dances like they're Eastern European, except for Carl and I, who dance like Peanuts characters, and we get out of the party at about 4am and blow the budget on a cab back to Paradise.

Final Scene: Tragedy.
Sunday I'm so partied out that it's all I can do to drag myself out of bed to go with the neighbors and Lisa to the Farmers Market at La Cruz. I later can't get myself to go check my email, and everyone else answers negatively to the question of whether or not they got anything from the casting agent. Fine, we were burnt out and spirit-crushed on the Hollywood rat race anyhow. I don't check my email until Tuesday--when, of course, I see an email sent from the casting agent Sunday, asking if Don and I want to work on Monday. ARRRRGGGGGHHHH!!!!

I beat myself up for the entire day, even while playing frisbee on the beach and living the lifestyle of a tortured starlet, drinking wine in the middle of the day. And then, I am snapped out of my depression at once by...

A SWORM OF BEES!!! (To be continued...) 

comida

lisa:

greetings from the galley. it hasn't been easy and there have been a few mishaps. we spoke about them a little bit in our last audio post but i thought i'd expound on the subject a little. leaving ventura it was smooth sailing and cooking was easy. in the ensenada marina, easy peasy. when we left ensenada the weather was rough, the waves were huge and frankly, i was terrified. we had ramen that night. the next meal was spaghetti with shrimp, peas and leeks. i unlocked the stove so it would remain level while the boat rocked back and forth. well, for those of you who have never seen this (and this was my first time) it's super scary. it was swaying at approx 45 degree angle with pots full of boiling water. i screamed a lot and made some one stay with me. not rational, i know, but i didn't trust that wobbly thing- we're friends now. also during this time in my learning process i was placing things on the counters, diving back and forth between the stove and the counter as things slid around. not everything survived. one morning i was making bagels. i put 5 bagels in the oven, caught the hummus as it tried to make a break for it. stopped the jam from crashing off the counter. i buttered and jammed half, hummused & avo'd the other half. i put them on a plate and started the ascent to the cockpit starving and ready to eat. as i stepped out of the galley, the door to the electrical panel flies open and knocks all the bagels off the plate. every one lands gooey side down. i, of course, begin screaming and throwing a tantrum. scooping and screaming i prepare to throw the treacherous bagels overboard. both don and andy scream, in unison, "no! we'll eat them!" dinner the next night was a veggie korma with jasmine rice. i had prepared this meal ahead of time so i only had to reheat  and serve. i plated the rice and then turned my attention to the korma. while i had my back turned a bowl of rice went sliding across the counter and took a header straight onto the floor. there was less screaming this time, but not by much. around this time i realized i needed to line the counter so i could stop all this sliding. now i put down a few hot pads and kitchen towels and it's been successful so far. i've been making bread as well. banana walnut and honey oat. and since my oven doesn't have a temperature setting, just a big flame and a little flame on the knob, this is no small feat. let's just say i purchased an oven thermometer and stand there adjusting it for about an hour. you get used to it.

provisioning has been a lot of fun. everything in mexico has sugar in it. i learned very quickly how to translate high fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated oils. but the produce has been gorgeous and mostly pretty cheap. a papaya for less than $2 makes me pretty happy. avo's are about $4-5/ kilo- so a little pricey and apples are insane. great prices for tomatoes and when you can find good looking herbs they are about .40 a bunch. 

lelsie and i went to the farmers' market in la cruz the other morning and did pretty well. we found some tahini, which i had given up on. beautiful basil, cherry tomatoes and green beans. we also bought scallops ,which i think were old because they were very chewy and i barely cooked them a minute, but they had a nice flavor. we had a pasta with all those goodies and i made a white wine lemon sauce to go with it and we sopped it all up with a baguette, also purchased at the market. the whole thing cost me about $15 and it made 2 meals for 5 people. i also have tons of basil left over, so savory muffins are on this afternoons agenda. i think that's about all for me. adios!

State of the art cooling

snapping snappers

loverly veg

Gator love

Carl:

Paradise Village has a number of wildlife exhibits on the grounds---parrots, tigers (Daisy & Diego), and even two alligators.  I've been particularly interested in the alligators.  And by "alligators" of course I mean water slides; the place has two water slides shaped as alligators.  A few days back the gang finally succumbed to my constant barrage of "let's go to the water slides!"  To be fair it seemed like Andy had wanted to go for a while too, but nevertheless we all finally went together.  And aside from me eventually getting asked by security to take mi perro (Raleigh) away from the pool area, I'd say it was a great success.

Side note:  We had a previous attempt at getting on the slides too---a sorry goes out to Alex, Gary & Sabrina for not being able to join when you were here!

Not us---just a stock photo of the slides

After the sliding Lisa found a secret under-walkway grotto area in the pool.  And thanks to our underwater point & shoot we've got some pictures to show it.

Andy & Lee

Les with a smile

now we're underwater

Don looking particularly guapo

what can I say, I've got nice timing when it comes to taking photos

:)  only underwater shot we actually got with all of us in it

Giant Steps

Ok, so we have left you all a bit in the dark (other than spot updates and single act whale plays). To try and play catch up we have done another audio post. It is, however, a monster. Coming in at at a whopping 35 minutes for 39 pictures, it will be understandable if you never hear Lisa's final plea to stop recording. Not to mention the pictures and audio work together but the pics are out of chronological order, soooo... yeah. Anyway the short version of it all is, it was scary, then it was less scary, then we survived and kinda seem to like it a bit.
We are now in Puerto Vallarta. It looks like we will be in this area for a little while trying to get our refrigerator fixed. We will be coming and going around Banderas Bay for the next week or so while we wait for things to get fixed, and while in port we will try to get a post out of each crew member and maybe even our guests, detailing the days and nights at sea. Should be good.
For now here are the pics and ramblings:

Click here for Blah Blah Blah

Very territorial sea lions

one of the mellow moments

slow going at the cabo fuel dock

When tacos attack. Hey look it's Christine!

The luxurious hot shower

Ensenda, our first love

Sweet relief. First time in 2 days.

Biggest friggin flag ever

Viagra man

Never ending dishes

Treasure hunting gone wrong. Damn Pesos

Only Japanese man in Ensenada made a mean Udon

...and there it is.

Sailing to Mexico should be warm

First meal in 2 days. Looking good AC

Sneak peak of the 2012 "Overalls and Diesel" calendar

Look ma, no jacket! Finally getting warmer.

Bucket'o'spa

This will not make a dog go the the bathroom

The back 40

Poop Deck

Making peace with the gimbled stove

Taming an unruly gennaker

Down after 5 minutes

Yeah, it's beautiful out here, we get it.

Pancake breakfast 4 days out to sea.

Like we said, we get it.

It's just not right

America's cup boat at the point outside Cabo harbor

Mas cervezas por favor

Best taco ever

Josh get ready for the big passage

monkeys

Looking good

#1 

Viva la Mexico!